The Walk: Follows an excellent, level, off-road shared walkway/cycleway
Distance: 3.75 km
Time: 45 minutes
Getting there: Westbus routes 811, 813 and 815 run from Parramatta and Merrylands to Pemulwuy Marketplace. Route 830 runs along Greystanes Road from Cabramatta and Blacktown and also passes near to the end of this walk at Prospect Hotel. However this last service is very infrequent on weekends and public holidays.
Car parking: in Driftway Drive near the start or in the car park of Pemulwuy Marketplace.

Start this section of the Circular Walk at the roundabout where Driftway Drive crosses Butu Wargun Drive. Walk across the concrete quarter circle away from the roundabout and cross the footbridge over the lake. At the end of the bridge turn left to follow another walkway which soon crosses Naoi Avenue. The suburb of Pemulwuy is named after one of the principal leaders of resistance by the inhabitants of this area to British settlement of New South Wales. Their resistance followed British grants of land to former convicts around Prospect Hill in 1791. See the History section of this web site.

You are now on some of the first land in Australia to be granted to time-expired convicts in 1791. Strips of land called driftways were left between blocks of land grants, either where there were natural obstacles to cultivation, such as creeks or ridge lines, or to allow the settlers to pass to and from their land (Holroyd 2005, p 41).

When you reach Watkin Tench Parade, do NOT cross over, but turn left and cross Driftway Drive. The walkway then curves past some tennis courts and through a wooded area. A sharp right and then a left turn enables you to cross Watkin Tench Parade. The shared use walkway/cycleway now follows Silverthorne Drive.

On the left is Grey Box Reserve, an area of protected natural native bushland. Look across right over the new housing development of Nelson's Ridge to the eastern ridge of Prospect Hill. On the left you can make out the Moreton Bay fig tree standing on the crown of One Tree Hill. You can also see the ridge rising to the right up to the highest point, Greystanes Hill. After about 350 metres take a left turn along a winding walkway/cycleway which leads to the Lower Prospect Canal Reserve.

In a short distance you reach the Canal Reserve track. Turn right here. A straight section of the walkway continues under two bridges heading south-west and parallel with a long level ridge of Prospect Hill on your right. The Reserve is described as, "a unique bushland corridor in the heart of Sydney." (CRAG 2).

The cycleway has so far been passing through the Lower Prospect Canal Reserve, which was created in 2002. The canal had ceased being used for water supply in about 1995 and it was largely through a public campaign spearheaded by the Canal Reserve Action Group (CRAG) that the Reserve and its wal kway/cycleway were created (ibid.).

The walkway/cycleway now curves right until you reach a side track that comes from Hyland Road on the left. Turn down this to Hyland Road if you are finishing the walk here. Otherwise continue along the next section of the Circular Walk